


Women Like Us Drown Oceans

by wandertogondor



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: 1910s, 1920s, Alternate Universe - Peaky Blinders Fusion, Friendship, Gangsters, Strong Women, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power, Women's History Month, real women in history
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29981310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandertogondor/pseuds/wandertogondor
Summary: Women's History Month one-shots! Polly chats with her contemporaries in the crime world to discuss the state of their respective gangs, life after the men return from war, and where they stand as women in a new world which has been shot to pieces.
Kudos: 1





	Women Like Us Drown Oceans

**Author's Note:**

> In celebration of Women's History Month, I'll be writing about three influential and powerful women from the 1910s - 1920s who earned their living and reputation from illicit businesses just like Polly Gray. Inspired by Rupi Kaur.

**1920 | Alice Diamond:** **Queen of the Forty** **Thieves**

Diamond Annie was on her way to Birmingham.

Her name wasn't really Annie. It was Alice.

Like many other men, women, and children, Alice Diamond's life began in poverty. She was the oldest of seven children born in the dreadful conditions of Lambeth Workhouse Hospital in Surrey, London. Her parents, Thomas Diamond and Mary Ann Alice Blake, had married just weeks before her birth to avoid a child out of wedlock. Alice Diamond narrowly missed a life swaddled in the stigma of illegitimacy.

She descended from colorful reputations. Her father, Thomas, was a violent and illiterate criminal. His favorite story to tell was when he assaulted the son of the Lord Mayor of London by shoving his head through the glass pane of a door. That had been the second of his three criminal convictions.

Her mother, Mary, was a strange bird. Mary would add the names _Alice_ and _Ann_ to her own name at random times and insist to be called that instead. Nobody was really sure if her name was _Mary_ or _Alice_ or _Ann_. It was best practice to use one of those three options knowing she'd answer to one eventually. It made things easier for others but quickly became confusing when Alice and her sister Ann were born.

Alice painted her own colorful reputation in 1912 by stealing chocolates at Sabini's racecourse. She was never caught, and neither was her friend Mary Austin. Mary Austin ended up marrying Charles Sabini.

The world was a funny place to Alice Diamond after that.

She worked out of the Elephant and Castle district. There were two gangs in that area: The Elephant Gang, made up of the men, and The Forty Elephants, made up of the women. Alice Diamond was the leader of the Forty Elephants.

While the men in The Elephant Gang preferred blackmail and breaking into houses, the women were more subtle and calculated. The Forty Elephants ransacked department stores. Well, ransacked is the wrong word for it considering thousands of pounds of clothing and jewelry were pinched in a single visit, promptly stuffed into deep pockets, bloomers, and crinoline skirts.

Alice Diamond was an avid reader and doubled over the papers each day after a department store hit. The police described her girls as _big handsome women about six feet tall, fashionably dressed with razors in their corsages._ Alice always laughed, beaming with pride. Her girls were fearsome things to behold.

As decadent as their lifestyle and as handsome as they were, Alice was territorial and ruled her patch of street with as much violence as her male counterparts. She ruled with an iron first and decorated on that fist were jewel-encrusted rings. It gave her a punch to beware of.

There was no memory of when Alice met Elizabeth Shelby for the first time. Even though she had been Polly Gray for years now Alice never called her so. It was always _Elizabeth_.

During the war, the Forty Elephants and the Peaky Blinders agreed to a civil pact. Polly Gray had come up to London and Alice Diamond served her tea. It was a formal and direct negotiation. Calm. Both parties left as winners. The Peaky Blinders would pay for the stolen clothes at a discounted price for resale and the Forty Elephants could extend their operations out of London with the protection by the Blinders at no cost.

Symbiotic.

"Elizabeth."

"Alice." Polly embraced the young woman in front of the train station.

Polly Gray read the papers too. She read about how Diamond Annie and her gang would descend in taxis and limousines like a gang of locusts, emptying stores like Whiteelys under an hour. Polly read how The Forty Elephants would hang bags from their waist inside their skirts that could hold up to 50 stolen items and would sew false arms into their blouse. It was all the work of Diamond Annie. Polly never called her so. It was always _Alice._

At Watery Lane, both women sat at the kitchen table over a pot of tea. Their fine furs had been neatly set aside, hats unpinned, and shoulders dropping from their usually lofty strength. They were normal people in a normal house talking about normal things.

"I hope there's no hard feelings that we backed out of the stolen goods scheme," Polly remarked as she poured out the tea and divided biscuits from the packet.

Alice took a short sip from her cup with a chipped handle, found it too hot, and set it back down on the table, shaking her head. "Not at all. The boys were bound to come back and that means women have to step down again."

Polly smiled. "Not you though."

"No," Alice's lips stretched across her face. "Business is better than ever now. Everyone is too distracted by the end of the war. Store's are becoming better stocked." She held a brief pause to sip at the tea again. "I'm glad your boys came back. It's a shame we couldn't continue our partnership."

Polly shrugged absentmindedly. "It's the way things are. Those boys were forced back into civilian life with no structure and control. They come back and want power."

"And that's how you came into that scuffle with the Dublin copper?" Alice crossed her legs and leaned back into the chair. There was sympathy in her voice. Years of peace and cooperation were destroyed because Polly's nephew bit off more than he could chew, leaving his aunt to help fix the damage he caused. "Men," she scoffed. "What's the use of 'em?"

This made Polly chuckle. The same thought had crossed her own mind through the whole guns, Grace, and bookie ordeal last year. Thomas had pulled them through but the problem wouldn't have arose if he had just thrown those stolen guns into the fuckin' Cut. But he had them on an upward road to power, influence, and affluence and Polly was happy to take a backseat to the ride.

"It's a mystery to me," she finally said.

"Sometimes the women have to take over. Like during the war. Men don't seem to have the strategic intelligence to conduct business between families without vying for an upper hand." Alice Diamond held her hand out in front of her to admire her diamond rings. "The world would be a better place if women stayed at the top. We see the little details. We're deliberate with our orders."

"Men aren't good at following orders. They think they could do it better, put their own spin on it, and there goes the plan. Unraveling."

The two women laughed in agreement and finished their tea. Polly reached out to pinch the silk dress draped across Alice's body before it was hidden in the lavish fur coat she'd arrived with.

"I'll send you one just like it," Alice grinned. "You can put on the posh too, Elizabeth. What's next for you?"

"Whatever Thomas says is next."

"Oh," she waved her hand, the diamonds glittering off her rings, "you tell your Thomas I personally said thanks for putting one into that Billy Kimber's head. I never liked that whiny fuck."

Polly made assurances that she would. "And what about you? What's next on your agenda, Queen of the Forty Thieves? That's what they call you now, did you know?"

Alice Diamond beamed. "Queen of the Forty Thieves?" she asked. "That's a new one. I don't half mind it. What's next for me? I've got plans in motion. We've been falsifying letters of recommendation to get our girls set up as maids. You want a bottle of expensive perfume, Elizabeth? I can arrange it. For all our years of friendship, you deserve some loot."

**Author's Note:**

> Up next... Stephanie St. Clair: Queen of Harlem


End file.
